Fifty Shades of Red
by ReticentNinja
Summary: A deranged serial killer by the name of Copycat is on the loose in the City of Vale. FBI agent, Weiss Schnee, has been on the case since day one to apprehend the killer. However, all potential evidence ran cold, until by the stroke of chance, the killer slipped up. Now Weiss has to place everything on the killer's failed victim, Ruby Rose, to end to this bloody murder mystery
1. Chapter 1

**This is NOT your story of kinkyful goodness. But since it's rated M, this story will contain some kind of sexual content in the far future. That, and there's a crazy serial killer on the loose.**

* * *

Copycat.

It was grotesquely signed in all capital letters on the walls with the victim's blood. Severed limbs disjointedly connected together to paint out a neat but unidentifiable message on the filthy alley floor. The pool of viscous blood underneath the disassembled body parts splattered everywhere, shading the area with almost every color of red in the color spectrum.

Weiss Schnee pushed her platinum hair over the crevice behind her ear and wrinkled her brows at the putrid, decaying odor. She instinctively pinched nose with her two fingers while she stared down at the gruesome sight.

It smelled like road kill that had been left baking in the beating hot sun for far too long.

She gagged a little, the foul stench of blood somehow slipped through the tiniest crevices and invaded her sensitive senses. Vile substances from today's lunch almost regurgitated, but she made sure to keep it all down.

"This is disgusting," another FBI agent crinkled her nose.

She removed her aviator sunglasses and squinted closely at the perfectly hacked body. She angled her head sideways in hopes to get a better sense of idea of what the hell she was looking at, but nothing worth noting came to mind.

"Coco, this is why we need to solve this quick." Weiss circled around the limbs, snapping a photograph at every direction. "This is getting way out of hand."

"Hah! If you need a hand, there's two severed ones on the floor."

"Knock it off." Weiss shot a intimidating glare at Coco who casually brushed it off like specks of dust. "You're supposed to be my partner. So be useful and help me out by not making morbid puns."

"It was an attempt to make this less depressing as it is," she muttered. "Hey Ice Queen, you would expect a serial killer to be good in art, but this is just plain awful."

"Coco," her partner sighed while dragging her syllables as vexatious as she could. "Be serious."

"I am serious!" She frowned at Weiss for questioning her professionalism. She gestured hands at the obviously mutilated body. "There's not a single good clue anywhere on this."

Her blue eyes scanned across the dismembered body and its vicinity. As much as Weiss didn't want to admit, Coco was right. The bodies were awfully put together.

Limbs were arranged in jagged circles like several ripples in a river. It was difficult to make out what it was suppose to be, and the blood smeared across the floor didn't even do the image justice either.

It was disgusting.

If the serial killer was trying to put a secret message out there, then that person was doing one hell of a job in stretching the word secret.

"Let's collect some blood samples and do a swab around the place. Maybe we'll be lucky and get something out of it," the alabaster haired woman puffed out a breath of hot air.

Coco shrugged and took out a plastic bag from her black briefcase. She slipped on white disposable gloves and aseptically swabbed the place for any clues. Blood samples were drawn but that was as much as they could do. They already swept the place for any traces of weapon nearby and already done a forensic test. Like normal, they came out either empty handed or with invaluable information.

"You two ladies got everything you needed?" One officer ducked under the yellow caution tape obstructing his path. "Because we need to get this cleaned up before it makes a bigger scene than necessary."

Weiss looked at Coco and the latter nodded her head.

"Yes, we are done. Thank you —" Weiss paused, subtly squinting at the name tag attached to the officer's uniform. "Officer Wukong."

"No formals. Sun is just fine as it is," he smiled but it gradually faded into a frown. His hand found its way to the back of his head, and he scratched nervously. "I figure we might be working together more often considering this is the second one this week." The hand travelled back down to his throat and he began rubbing it anxiously. "It's rather disgusting to clean up after this person."

"Something that we both can agree on," Weiss simply nodded. She tore her gaze away from the officer and gestured her head at Coco.

Her partner noted the silent message and slipped back her aviator sunglasses before storing the bag of evidence into the briefcase.

"We'll do our best to apprehend this criminal," Weiss continued when she turned back to Sun. "Once again, thank you. We'll be taking our leave now."

The two ladies ducked under the yellow tape and went into the black sedan parked onto the side of the street. Like always, Coco took the driver seat while Weiss sat in the passenger. It was normal for the platinum haired agent to go through all their clues, trying to piece what they have together.

"I'll send those to the investigators to have the samples read. But most likely, we're not going to get anything except the name of the victim," Coco said as she started up the car.

"One can hope," Weiss sighed, a tone of unpersuasive optimism. She rubbed her temples to soothe the headache that was beginning to form. She popped the locks of her white briefcase and began to flip through the files. "I'll run through the security cameras when you drop me off home."

"You're not going to find anything. Copycat always tampers with it."

"I'm trying to be positive here," she hissed at Coco. Papers shuffled around in her hands as her blue eyes flickers through every paper.

"What are you looking at?"

"Old files of Copycat's victims," Weiss answered. She began tapping her chin as she focused on reading a light profile of one paper.

Russel Thrush, a slim boy with light-green mohawk, was murdered at Vale's park. His body was found in the next morning by a routinely jogger. When police arrived to the scene, Copycat was marred onto his chest. The thin red line imprinted on his neck suggested that he was strangled to death initially.

Weiss flipped to the next paper.

Penny Polendina, a young teenage girl with curly orange hair and freckles on her face, was found dead early in the morning in the middle of a baseball arena. Both joints of her arms and legs were cruelly torn from her body, and scattered haphazardly around the arena as the killer's celebration for Easter. Police had to shut down the stadium for a week to find the missing limbs as part of their surprised special Easter hunt, and had to scrub the place spotless from the blood. Not only that, but the grass had to be replaced considering Copycat was neatly mowed in big letters.

Weiss flipped to another one.

Emerald Sustrai, a young woman with mint green short hair, was found in a public swimming pool with her eyes gouged out. Her body floated on the surface of the tainted red water with empty eye sockets. Trails of dried blood ran from the corner of her mouth and her nail beds were ripped off. It was a mystery of how the girl died but autopsy suggested that her organs were ruptured, leading to internal bleeding. However, the killer remained the same as the name Copycat was horribly scribbled on the girl's eyeballs, which was found by an employee in the cash register box.

Weiss stroke her temples again and flipped to the next paper.

Peter Port, a middle aged man who worked at Beacon University, was found hogtied and inhumanly shoved in a cage that belong to one of the animal science department. His head was missing, and bruises and cuts were found all over his body, an implication that he was tortured. The school was closed for a few days and police later found the missing remnant of his body on his office desk. Marked on the victim's forehead was the name Copycat.

"Nothing makes any sense," Weiss murmured as she frustratingly ran a hand through her silky long hair. "There were no signs of sexual assault on any of the victim's bodies. There's no gender or age preference. There's no consistent methods of homicide. There's obvious signs that the killer is organized and at least intelligent."

"It's like Copycat is just killing for the sake of killing," Coco muttered, shaking her head. The black Sedan slowed to an almost stop and pulled into a driveway of a white house. "Well, we're here. Update me if you find anything out."

"Don't I always?" Weiss snorted.

"Yeah, but normally you don't find anything," she half joked but the other half was the harsh truth. Copycat barely left any leads for them, so it was essentially difficult to crack the case. "Make sure to get some rest too. You're too head deep in this case that I can start seeing bags forming."

"Your concern is duly noted Coco."

"Good," she then playfully grinned. "Now get out of my car."

Weiss rolled her eyes at. She knew Coco's remarks meant no harm, barely any bites. Her partner was always full of sarcasm, and sometimes, Weiss appreciated it.

"My pleasure," she made a strangled sound of annoyance. She got out of her partner's car and took her briefcase along. "If you find anything, let me know."

Coco shot her a thumbs up and back out of the driveway once Weiss shut the door. The white haired woman strode to the front of her house and unlocked the door. When she walked right in, she was welcomed with silence like usual.

Like any other ordinary home, hers was just as similar, nothing extraordinarily extravagant. A simple living room with a simple kitchen, and a simple one bedroom with a converted office room across from it.

Weiss sighed and shrugged off the black jacket of her business attire suit. She kicked off the low inch black heels and comfortably walked into her office room with her pale skinned feet.

The agent immediately dived straight to her laptop, sat down, and popped it open. She was dedicated to her job, almost a slave to it. But she enjoyed solving mysteries, and she enjoyed bringing down the hammer of justice to those who deserved it.

Her finger maneuvered around the touch pad of the mouse, opening multiple files saved in her laptop.

"Where is it…" She muttered to herself, scanning left and right.

A few clicks and she finally found what she was looking for. A window popped up in her computer screen and she reclined back into her leather office chair, getting herself comfortable to watch the security footage.

The monochrome colored video played quickly, fast forwarding the scene from morning to night. Not a single noise could disturb Weiss as she focused her gaze onto the screen. A few minutes passed, and the number of passersby had begun to dwindle.

It was a signal that evening was approaching and people were heading home.

The video flicker through normally, and her eyes narrowed upon a man walking on the sidewalk alone. He constantly glanced back at his watch while taking long and hurried strides. As he approached closer to the alley, the video suddenly cuts into a gun metallic static.

"Fucking dammit!" Weiss snarled, slamming her fist onto the wood polished desk.

The security footage buzzed loudly. At the bottom of the screen, there was a message in white printed letters that said 'lost signal'. But Weiss knew that the signal didn't coincidentally disconnected during that moment.

Copycat had somehow tampered the footage.

Weiss snapped her jaw tightly closed and gritted her teeth. She continued to watch the blank video until the footage hazily returned back to normal. The victim's corpse barely peeked out of the alley within the camera's range, but as expected, there was no sign of Copycat.

She slammed the top cover of her laptop shut, and she frustratingly stormed into the kitchen. She was angry that Copycat has always been ten steps ahead of her. It was beginning to irk her because Weiss was normally multiple steps ahead.

Copycat was one of the rare people in her books that posed a difficult challenge to hunt down. Most of the agent's cases were easily solved within a month, perhaps much less if criminals weren't the brightest of the bunch. However, it had already been two months.

Two months with barely any smidgen of leads.

Weiss jerked open her fridge and rummaged through it to put some kind of dinner together. She grabbed a plastic container of mixed salad and a bottle of dressing, along with leftover pasta from yesterday night. She then proceeded to bitterly set it on the table, furiously stabbing her food with a fork in the same fashion of how Copycat would probably stab their victims.

Cold, tasteless pasta was hungrily shoved into her mouth along with her salad on the side. Weiss didn't care of how dull her food tasted. She just needed something in her stomach to keep her energy up if she wanted to catch Copycat.

As Weiss thought more about Copycat, it made her blood boil. She continued to indignantly shove more of her bland dinner into her mouth until her phone started ringing. She quickly swallowed and sipped a mouthful of water to clear her throat.

"What Coco," Weiss irascibly spat, obviously in a terrible mood.

 _"I need you here stat. We suspect Copycat had a new target."_

"Wait, what?" Her typical cold demeanor thawed and she blinked multiple times to register what she had just heard.

 _"I think Copycat struck again on the same day,"_ Coco explained further. There was a hint of urgency in her tone of voice that Weiss could distinguish. _"I need you here at Vale Hospital."_

"Why Vale Hospital?"

 _"Because the assailant failed to kill their target."_

* * *

 **I don't watch enough CSI, law and order, how to get away with murder, etc to have a complete understanding of everything. So if there are mistakes, point them out, and I will do my best to fix them to the best of my abilities without changing the story too much. If it's grammar mistakes, you are also welcome to point them out, and I will take note of it and fix it later on.**

 **Even though I have a bunch of other stories on my plate, I'm adding more. *shrug* I debated whether or not I should finish typing it before posting it. But through long contemplation, I'm sure you guys will appreciate a new white rose story. I'm already many chapters deep and not even half way through. Just need thorough proofreading.**

 **If you have concerns that this story may contain something you don't want to read, feel free to PM me.**


	2. Chapter 2

Weiss rushed through the entrance of Vale Hospital and quickly whipped out her badge to the receptionist without batting an eye. She was in a hurry, and finding out Copycat slipped up managed to brighten up the last hours of her day.

She rode up the elevator and quickly strode to the room Coco had text her. When she rounded a sharp corner of the hallway, she noticed Coco standing outside the door with a few police officers.

"Update me," Weiss impatiently snapped.

"The police received a call an hour ago from a woman who believed she was being followed," Coco started to debrief. "Considering the station is on high alert after today's incident, they quickly tracked the woman down. By the time they got there – well, let's just say she got it _a lot_ better than most of Copycat's victims."

"How do you know it's from Copycat instead from another random person?" Weiss skeptically raised an eyebrow.

It didn't make any sense for Copycat to strike the same night. Then again, their killings had been increasing during this month. There was a possibility that something could've triggered the person to make another mark.

"We don't exactly know," Coco shrugged. "If you take a look at the woman's body, there's signs of strangling. A few bad bruises here and there, and some cuts. But there were no signs of Copycat's signature, which I presume, they didn't have time to make. Police probably arrived before the killer could claim her life."

"So why are we quick to assume that it's Copycat's doing?" Weiss pointed out.

"Better to assume for the worse," she shrugged again. "So it's best to keep this between us before we disclose anything."

Weiss placed her index finger and her thumb underneath her chin and glanced down in contemplation. It was reckless to assume immediately that it was Copycat's doing. But the worst that could happen is wasting a portion of their time. They can easily gather enough data to check if they had the wrong person or not.

However if it was Copycat's doing, then they hit the jackpot.

"Very well then," the alabaster haired agent nodded. "And the woman?"

"In the room unconscious as we speak. We're leaving a few patrols around there area to keep an eye on her considering she can potentially lead us to her attacker. And if I were to take a guess, the assailant would come after her in the future to finish the job."

"I see," Weiss mumbled. "Sweep the location where the woman was attacked. If the attacker failed to kill their victim, then perhaps they failed to cover their tracks."

Coco gave her a whimsical two finger salute. "Also, Cardin Winchester."

"Who?" Weiss frowned.

"That's the name of the victim's name from earlier this evening."

Weiss nodded understandingly. She made a mental note to do a profile check on the victim whenever she got the chance to. Coco turned around and proceeded to the elevator, but she paused for a brief second to add a comment.

"I do believe the patient in the room might fit your taste."

Weiss frown faltered into awestruck disbelief, meanwhile, Coco strode into the elevator audibly laughing. Before the elevator closed fully, Coco had the decency to also add, "and don't think I wouldn't know Weiss. I know you."

Finally, the elevator doors slid to a close with a chiming beep.

"I know you," she mocked Coco underneath her breath. "We'll see about that."

She turned to face the thick wooden door that was separating her and the injured victim. Her hand reached for the knob, and she slowly turned, keeping in mind the woman was unconscious.

Even though Weiss was an epitome of a proper woman, refined to the finest, her eyes easily forgotten their basic manners when they traced over the woman unabashedly. And as much as she didn't want to admit, Coco was right. The woman was quite a looker, but she wouldn't know if she perfectly matched her preference from first glance.

Slate silver eyes peered back into her blue, and the bare tip of the woman's asymmetrical red hair leaned towards her own shoulder as she bewilderingly tilted her head. Small speckles of now dried blood dyed the gauzes and bandages wrapped around her forehead, but the bandage around her neck still maintained its pristine white color.

It slowly registered to Weiss that the victim was definitely not unconscious, and was very wide awake.

"Oh I'm sorry," Weiss quickly apologized. "Pardon my manners. I should've knocked before I came in."

The woman was more responsive as she silently blinked a little more. However, her eyebrows quirked together in confusion, then her metallic orbs broaden.

"I — Um — No, it's okay," the woman stammered.

There was a tinge of blush on her cheeks that Weiss could distinguish but shortly disregarded when the woman hacked a spasm of coughs after she spoke. Her hands found purchase to her neck to soothe the pain in her throat, but what she felt was constricting white bandages.

A panic look rose on the woman's face at slight touch of the foreign material.

"Rest assured ma'am." Weiss took a seat next to the victim. "You're safe now."

"W-What happened?" She stammered, fear slowly rising in her eyes.

"I was hoping you would tell me that. I am FBI agent, Weiss Schnee." She flashed her badge as proof before putting it away. "You made a call earlier about someone following you on the streets. Do you remember anything?"

"I-I was followed?" An aghast surprise erased the panic expression.

"Yes," the FBI agent affirmed. "The police station received a call from a woman, which led them to you."

"I…" The woman closed her eyes, trying hard to rack her memories together. "Right… A phone call. I made a phone call," she repeated quietly.

A knock resounded from the door and a tall woman with long red hair came in. A stethoscope hung around her neck and Weiss could make out the name tag pinned on her white coat.

Dr. Nikos, it read.

"Oh Miss Rose," the doctor said surprisingly after looking up from her clipboard. "Glad to see you're awake." Her green eyes glanced at the FBI agent and the doctor didn't look too pleased. "Though I can't say the same for your company. It seems some people need to learn how to respect the patient's privacy."

"Dr. Nikos," Weiss matched the same displeased frown as her. "This is an important matter."

"And the patient's physical and mental health is important too," Dr. Nikos retorted.

"While I do care for _Miss Rose's_ health." Weiss forgot to asked the woman for her name, instead, she picked it up from a few seconds ago. "This matter cannot be pushed to the side. Other people's lives are at stake also."

"W-Wait," Miss Rose stuttered in confusion. "What's going on?"

Weiss sighed.

It wasn't easy to tell a person that they were attacked by a possible maniac. It was difficult to even sugarcoat it.

"You were attacked in the middle of the night. We currently have an idea of who attacked you, but we do not have hard evidence to support this claim."

Miss Rose unconsciously gripped to the side of her own arms, and her shiver did not go unnoticed by the agent.

"Please do not be alarmed," Weiss tried to reassure. She mustered up the best comforting smiles her resting bitch face could possible present. "I assure you that you'll be safe. If you would please Miss Rose, I would like to know what you can remember."

"I — um.. Believe a woman attacked me," Miss Rose began.

"A woman?" Weiss raised an eyebrow, and the victim nodded.

"I remember some pain, and I think I blacked out." She glanced down and fiddled her two thumbs. "I'm sorry. I don't think I could remember anything passed that."

"Miss Rose, you've experience a bit of head trauma. You've entered the hospital with blood seeping out from your forehead," Dr. Nikos explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember, especially how traumatic the incident was."

For once, Weiss nodded in agreement with the doctor. "Indeed." She already saw the state Miss Rose was in, and she knew it would take some time before she could ever recover what she remembered. "You've provided us tremendous information. The gender is a good start in our investigations. Thank you Miss Rose."

"I also contacted your sister when you first arrived in the hospital," the doctor added. "She should be arriving any —"

"RUBY," a blond woman shouted once she barged into the room. She quickly rushed to her sister's side and her face sunk. "Are you okay?" The blonde gently brushed the free red hair that wasn't restrained in bandages. Her lilac eyes distressingly slanted, evidently worried. "Please tell me you're okay."

"Yang," Ruby pulled back a little. "I'm okay. Just a little..." She took a deep breath. "Shocked."

"Thank goodness you're alright." Yang gently wrapped her arms around Ruby's head and pulled her into a soft embrace.

"I'm okay Yang. Really, I am."

She still reciprocated the hug back to the best of her abilities. Weiss and Dr. Nikos quietly stayed in their positions as they watched the two sisters interact.

"Ruby, what were you thinking walking alone late at night?"

"I-I don't know… I just needed a walk because I had a lot on my mind."

"That doesn't make it a good reason to walk at night! You know what's been happening out there."

"I'm sorry Yang, it won't happen again. I promise."

"Overall, Miss Rose seems to be fine, though she will be staying in the hospital for a little while," Dr. Nikos interrupted. "We need to run a few x-rays to make sure there are no skull fractures. Her head got banged up pretty well."

"Thank you doctor," Yang released a breath of relief.

"If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact one of the nurses to get a hold of me. In the mean time, I apologize, but I have a few other patients to tend." Dr. Nikos said with a polite bob of her head before shutting the door behind her.

Yang briefly glanced at the platinum haired woman who was still present in the room by the side of the bed. "And you are...?" She trailed off.

"FBI agent Weiss Schnee," the agent answered, flashing her badge once again.

"FBI?" Yang gulped. It wasn't every day a person could meet an FBI. Something must have warrant her to pay a special visit. "D-Does it have to do with the attacker?" Lilac eyes frantically did double takes between her sister and the FBI agent.

"Indeed it does," Weiss sighed and gave an apologetic look. "My team is looking into it as we speak."

The agent felt sorry for Ruby. If she indeed came face to face with the city's infamous serial killer, it will surely take a lot of time to digest it all. Weiss glanced at Ruby, and the woman fiddled the edge of her blankets, rubbing it between her index finger and her thumb for some kind of comfort.

It was hard to read the woman's expression. Scared. Nervous. Anxious. Worried. There was a multitude of emotions simultaneously bombarding together.

"And that's why I am here," Weiss continued. Yang and Ruby perked their heads at the FBI agent. "If Miss Rose would like, I can assign a few officers to watch over her just in case her attacker strikes again."

"Umm… Will I be safe?" Ruby asked hesitantly. She noted the quizzical look that Weiss was making and clarified. "What if… What if my attacker poses as an officer?"

"Ruby, you watch way too many CSI shows," Yang articulated, crossing her arms and leaning towards one leg. "She's assigning professionals as your protection for free."

"I know… But it's possible isn't it?"

"It is not impossible," Weiss concurred as she got an idea of Ruby's worries. She had dealt with criminals impersonating an officer before. "Then what do you suggest? After all, this is your safety that we're concerned about."

"I.. I'm not sure." Ruby started at first. Her eyes glinted, heavily blinking, before she looked up to meet the FBI's blue eyes. "Do you think you can protect me?"

Yang whistled with an approving nod, while Weiss sat there with an incredulous look at her request.

"You want me to personally protect you?" Weiss repeated her question carefully, making sure she heard it right.

She was quite a busy person, especially with Copycat's shenanigans running loose. But then again, if Ruby were to perhaps to remember the incident, it could be a step closer to find Copycat or whoever attacked her. So it would be beneficial to keep her alive at all cost. Not to mention, the woman's good looks did provide a bonus in her book.

Ruby firmly nodded. "Will that be okay with you?"

"While it could be a great idea," Weiss stated with a soft hum. "I can't watch you 24/7. At best, I can only make a few random check ins once in awhile."

"As expected," Ruby nodded again.

"We can discuss more of the matter later. It's best if I take my leave. For now, there will be officers patrolling outside your room and around the hospital for suspicious activities," Weiss informed. "I'll notify a member of my team to make a few random rounds just in case your attacker does impersonate an officer."

Yang nodded before glancing at her sister. "You okay there Rubes?"

Ruby blinked again and bobbed her head. "Just digesting the information that's all. I zoned out a little bit there."

Weiss stood from her seat but not before bidding a polite farewell to the patient. "Have a good night Miss Rose." She then directed her attention to Yang and properly addressed her in the same fashion. "You as well, Miss Rose."

"It's actually Miss Xiao-long," Yang corrected. "We're half sisters. But please, call me Yang."

"You can call me Ruby as well," Ruby happily chimed in.

"My apologies Yang." Weiss kindly smiled. "Since we're going on informal basis, you are more than welcome to address me as Weiss."

Yang shot a thumb up, and Ruby lopsidedly grinned. Weiss turned around for the door, and closed it completely. The blonde waited for a few seconds to make sure the agent wasn't within range before she opened her mouth.

"I didn't know you were such a hyena!"

"What?! Yaaaang!"

* * *

 **Hyena is a term for younger people going after a person older than them. In this AU, Weiss is older than Ruby. You will find out about their age in the next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

Weiss did come back in the following day like she said she would.

The agent returned to Vale Hospital dressed in her usual attire suit, and rode the elevator. She casually made her way to Ruby's room while sipping her cup of hot coffee. The patrol officers standing guard outside greeted her, and Weiss nodded her head with a friendly smile as acknowledgement. Unlike yesterday, she minded her manners and knocked before she entered.

When she did enter the said room, Ruby was staring out the window seeming quite distant. She didn't notice the agent walking in as she kept her argentum eyes glued to the window pane. It wasn't until Weiss cleared her throat did Ruby snapped from her thoughts and finally looked her way.

"Oh hey Weiss." Her lips curved into a genuine, welcoming smile.

It was undoubtedly one of the beautiful smiles Weiss rarely encountered in life, a nice change in scenery from work for once. It beats those business friendly greetings she comes across every day, and Coco's sarcasm and that smirk on her face whenever she discreetly slid a small pun. It definitely brightened up her mood and erased that bubbling frustration from Copycat's rampage and today's morning fatigue.

"Good morning, Ruby," Weiss greeted, calm and composed as she took a seat next to the electrical bed. "How are you feeling?"

"My body is sore and my head hurts a lot," Ruby complained, but yet, she somehow managed to remain optimistic with that same smile.

Weiss noted the bandages wrapped around her head was different than yesterday. It wasn't dirtied with her dried blood anymore. It seemed like they were recently changed, the bandages maintaining its pristine white color.

"You did experience rough a night yesterday," Weiss huffed through her nose, empathetic that Ruby had to be the one to go through that hellish night.

"Yeah," Ruby nodded softly. "So what brings you here?" She cocked her head, but immediately regretted it as she roughly winced at the shake.

"To discuss about your protection."

"Oh right! As in assigning officers?"

"And under my personal watch from time to time," Weiss added.

"Huh —? Oh right. Right..." Ruby murmured as she weakly nodded.

"We've briefly discussed this yesterday, and I wanted to make sure you're okay with our terms."

Ruby nodded again. "Yeah I'm good with it."

"Good, good." Weiss copied, nodding her head also. "Now that's settled, I was wondering if you can answer a question. If I may?" Ruby bobbed her head, giving her permission. "Do you perhaps remember anything else prior to that night?"

"I- uh..." She thought about it more, but heavily breathed out in defeat. "No, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it Ruby. Your safety is our concern right now. But if you do happen to recollect pieces of your memories, I would appreciate it if you let us know as soon as possible."

Ruby nodded, and her hand found its way back to the edge of the blanket. She fumbled it, therapeutically kneading it nervously. "Weiss, I kind of have a confession to make." The agent tilted her head, urging her to continue with an awaiting look. "I kind of…" Ruby paused, gnawing her lower lips as she struggled to voice out what she needed to say.

"Kind of..." Ruby still hesitated, her neck barely stretched as she choked on her words.

"Kind of…?" Weiss urged her a little, confusion glazing over her eyes.

"Kind of been born with memory issues," she audibly blurted out with her eyes timidly shut. One eye found confidence and cracked opened, peaking to see Weiss's reaction. The agent's lips pressed into a thin straight line, her face completely impassive.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of Ruby," Weiss said, a voice that was indifferent and nonjudgmental. "Though, thank you for sharing this with me. I understand it must not be an easy task to share something so personal, especially to a stranger like me."

"Yang says that too." A faint smile rose at the corner of her lips and she finally stopped fumbling nervously. Her sterling silver eyes flitted away from the blanket and gazed back into blue. "I just wanted to let you know because I understand your case is very important to you. I haven't experienced memory loss ever since I was... Um... 6 years old, but I feel like I'm letting you down since — y'know... I could barely recall anything from yesterday."

"It's alright. You're not letting me down," Weiss assured tenderly and tried to keep her voice as soft as she possibly could. "I don't expect you to magically summon your memories. After all, you've gone through what people don't normally experience. Don't strain yourself more than you need to. I'm sure Dr. Nikos wouldn't want you to experience more head trauma than necessary."

"You're right," she lightheartedly giggled. "She came earlier this morning to –" A cell phone abruptly rung, cutting her off entirely.

"I'm sorry Ruby." Weiss frowned apologetically. She briefly took a glance at the caller ID and sighed. "As much as I would like to ignore this call, I need to take this."

She swiped the front of her screen and her face hardened.

"What Coco," she spoke coldly, her expression returning back to its notorious business face.

 _"Yikes, what did I do to warrant the Ice Queen's terror?"_

"Is there something you need?" Weiss stressed, dropping a tiny bit of her cold demeanor.

 _"No, just checking up on you cause you're not at the office. Normally you're always there early in the morning."_

"Don't worry about me Coco," she assured. "I'm fine."

 _"Where are you anyways?"_

"Vale Hospital."

 _"Wow Weiss, I knew you were a cougar."_

There was a notable but indescribable cat call coming from the other side of the phone. The platinum haired woman rolled her eyes at Coco's antics.

"I am not." She silently cursed herself when her growl accidentally lived up to its name.

 _"Ah — oops you're right. It's cradle robber, not cougar."_

Weiss was quick to remove the phone away from her ear before she could hear Coco hysterically laughing from her own witty remark.

"Ruby, quick question. How old are you?"

"21, why —"

Weiss disregarded her inquiry as she returned her attention back to her phone. "Coco," she annoyingly huffed.

 _"Yes, you hot to trot predator?"_

"Just shut up."

Coco chuckled, but it died as she slowly transitioned back to the topic on hand. _"I had the investigators make a sweep on the night of the attack. They ran forensic tests and everything."_

"Good news or bad news?"

 _"Bad news like always Ice Queen. Copycat, or whoever the attacker was, didn't leave anything behind, though there were deep blood spots on the wall. I assumed the victim had her head smashed against it."_

Weiss crinkled her nose as she imagined Ruby's encounter with her attacker. Having her head banged on the wall against her will didn't exactly sound like a pleasant feeling. No wonder Ruby had a hard time remembering.

She shuddered a little bit before glancing back at Ruby who was now staring out through the window again.

 _"Did the victim informed you anything new?"_

"Yes she did in fact. She said her attacker was female."

 _"Female huh? Well that could possibly explain why there weren't any defiled bodies."_

"Coco, we don't even know for sure yet."

 _"Like I said, it's better to take precautions and assume its Copycat. That way, we'll be prepared to deal with the matter if it does come to it. Right now, she's the only lead we got to something. So it's best if keep an eye on her."_

"Already am," Weiss mumbled. "I'll be watching her here and there."

 _"Whoa, you sure do pounce quickly."_

"Shut it," she hissed sourly. "Anything else?"

 _"Nope, I'll send you a few more files on Cardin Winchester and you can do a background check on him."_

"Okay, I'll update you if I happened to find anything else."

 _"Or you can update me on your love —"_

Weiss immediately hung up her phone and returned her attention back at Ruby.

"I'm sorry. That was an associate on the line and she had a few important things to address to me," Weiss grumbled, painfully making a blatant eye roll.

"Oh that's okay." Despite all these occurrences, Ruby still had a bright smile on her face. "Why did you need to know my age anyways?"

She brought the question back up, and left Weiss panicking a little. However, the agent kept a straight face and lamely answered with a white lie.

"Just to confirm our profiling"

"Ohh." Ruby only nodded and didn't question her response. "How old are you if you don't mind me asking?"

Her silver eyes curiously bore into blue.

"Not at all. It's only fair to answer your question since I asked for yours," Weiss said. "27."

"Woow," she replied in surprising awe. "You look so young for 27. So young, and so pretty." Ruby immediately covered her mouth. Her faced turned slightly red like her namesake, and she averted her eyes away.

On the other hand, Weiss was doing a better job in keeping herself composed. But it was rather impossible to hide the slight flush of her face. The two stayed quiet briefly until Weiss coughed to break the pregnant silence.

"T-Thank you," she stammered. She mentally cursed herself for stuttering a little bit. It wasn't like her to botch her conversations. A Schnee wasn't suppose to act like a flustering child. "I happen to get that a lot."

"That you're pretty?" Ruby mumbled to herself, but Weiss caught an ear of it.

"That I look rather young for my age. But pretty is something I get from time to time."

"Oh…" She replied as soft as a whisper, filled with embarrassment.

There was another brief silence sitting between them for awhile. It wasn't suffocating but it was still uncomfortable. It left their eyes darting around the room, but they did not dared to meet each other eyes. Weiss swirled her coffee around in her disposable cup, trying to keep herself occupied but yet tried to work out a conversation.

"So…" She managed to take the first step to break the deafening silence. It was unusual for her to have such a quiet conversation. Normally, she would spit out random questions to keep the chat rolling, but right now, her brain was short on words. "Do you still go to school?"

"Yep!" Ruby chirped, gradually peeling off her timidity. "I'm a computer science major at Beacon University."

"That's a pretty prestigious college," Weiss smiled. But mentally, she frowned at the mention of the school's name. Copycat had struck the school once, and this time they attacked a fellow student.

"Yeah," the redhead grinned widely. "I got a full ride because of an athletic scholarship for track and field. But I wouldn't be running anytime soon because of… Y'know." She gestured her body as she sat still in her bed.

"Rather impressive," Weiss voiced out her opinion. "You must quite the runner."

"I'm okay," Ruby modestly shrugged. "There are a couple of other people who are better than me. Yang tried to teach me boxing before."

"Your sister box?" Weiss blinked disbelieving. Sure the blonde's body was well developed on the muscle spectrum, but she never expected her to be in a very physical sport.

"Yeah! She tried teaching me before, but it didn't turn out well. Though she does make me go to the gym with her once in awhile," Ruby chuckled. "You should've seen her daily regimen. She could bench press double her weight."

"I used to have something along the lines of that," Weiss hummed as she thought back to her prior days in college. "I used to be on the fencing team, and had my own… Daily regimens. But benching double my weight was something I could never achieve."

"Wooow!" Stars lit in Ruby's silver eyes like the milky way. "That's so cool! I never met someone who can fence. You think you can show me a few of your tricks?"

Weiss was a little surprised with Ruby's enthusiasm. She never met anyone who was this fascinated. "Maybe next time. It's been many years since I last fenced though. I work better with a gun," she shrugged her shoulders.

"That's still coool," Ruby whispered in amazement.

The conversation slowly died and they sat there in silence again. Weiss still remembered the cup of coffee in her hand and brought it up to the edge of her lips. She sipped on it, and frowned upon the taste. It wasn't even hot anymore, barely passed as lukewarm.

"Do you… Um, know why I was attacked last night?"

Weiss glanced up from her coffee from the sudden question. "I don't actually," she answered honestly. "There could be many reasons. One of the most common could be you walking alone at night. Another one could be just a random attack."

"I see…" She murmured quietly. "I know this might be odd coming from me… But can I help you in any way?"

A doubtful eyebrow from Weiss rose at Ruby's request. "You already are Ruby. Just your memories alone can help us."

"I mean like solving the case," she weakly shrugged.

"I don't mean to sound rude Ruby, but I don't think you possibly can," Weiss tried to let her down gently. "My team is doing their utmost best to apprehend your attacker."

Her heart sank a little when she caught a sudden tug at the corner of Ruby's lips. She didn't like the sullen look on her face, in fact, she looked like a kicked puppy — well, a beat up, wounded puppy considering her current state.

"But..." Weiss hesitantly caved in a little. Not even a full minute passed and she couldn't bear the glum expression anymore. "It might help to acquire a different perspective on another case that I'm also working on."

Ruby perked up, her silver eyes returning back into its lively color.

"Do you know of Copycat?" The agent asked hesitantly.

"Who doesn't?" Ruby frowned. Weiss silently breathed out in relief that Ruby didn't rashly jumped to conclusion, deducing that her attacker could potentially be the serial killer.

"Well, Copycat is a case I'm currently working on, along with yours of course. Normally it would be against the rules to disclose confidential information, but there is no point if the general public will find out soon."

Ruby stayed in her upright position and listened quietly. Weiss took it as an indication to continue.

"Yesterday, a few hours before I arrived here, Copycat had already claimed Cardin Winchester's life."

Ruby crinkled her nose. "Cardin Winchester?"

"Yes, that was the victim's name."

"Weird... He's an alumni from Beacon University."

* * *

 **Cradle robber is a term used when someone older pursuing a person younger.**

 **Hot to trot means eager to engage in (sexual) activity.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I would like to show my thanks to the anonymous reviews for their constructive criticism because a few things slipped from my mind. I have to admit, I was being a lazy writer. Initially this was going to have skipped descriptions of how the crime happened. I used vague description because it will later be discussed as a group in their meeting. But it makes logical sense to make deductions at the scene of the crime and discuss from there. It was a reoccurring theme in the future chapters so I have kind of have to scrap those, and I have to steer the direction of the story a little bit differently as well. But the general idea of it is the same; the serial killer is the same. As for Coco and Weiss's relationship, I will try to do better and keep it more professional.**

* * *

It's been a few days since Ruby was released from the hospital, approximately a week since she told Weiss that Cardin graduated from Beacon. Copycat hadn't struck since that incident, and it alleviated a bit of burden off of Weiss's shoulders. Less dead victims meant less paperwork. Less paperwork also meant more time to crack down Copycat.

Ruby had returned back to her normal life and usually Weiss paid her a visit, as temporary unofficial co-workers of course.

They agreed on a reputable officer to patrol around the area late in the night while Weiss watched her later in the evening. The agent had inwardly deduced that if her attacker were to be Copycat, then most likely her assailant would attack at night. All of the attacks that Copycat had committed were at nightfall, or sometimes even later.

Even if her assailant wasn't the infamous serial killer, night time was the prime hour to commit crimes.

Most of the time when Weiss was on guard duty, she spent it mostly at Ruby's apartment. Ever since the incident, Ruby decided to stay home more often. They spent most of the hour chatting while having tea.

She discovered a lot of new things about the woman, like the fact that she didn't live with her sister anymore. Ruby decided to move closer to college because their home was on the outskirt of the city. It wasn't a far drive, but it was a bit out of the way.

She still had yet to remember anything of her attack, but she did contribute a bit to the case about Copycat. According to her, Cardin was an ace football star at Beacon University. He had a full ride scholarship, and graduated with the highest honors. He was a generous man who had a good future ahead of him. Right out of college, he was offered a job from a well distinguished company.

However, Copycat had robbed him from that future.

When Weiss had very briefly mention about Penny Polendina, Ruby recalled that she read that name somewhere on the Beacon's article. It wasn't till later that Weiss had a few hunches that she needed to confirm when she was off duty.

"Let's see," the agent murmured as she maneuvered her mouse to various files on her laptop. She was leaning forward against the desk under her own home. Her data was recently organized so it wouldn't be a bundle of mess.

Multiple tabs of the victims' profile were opened on her screen and she scanned through them again. Every single one of them, she dug deeper into their profile. Marked on the whiteboard in the middle of her room were diagrams and flow charts, trying to find some sort of connection.

And there was.

Most of the victim that were attacked by the Copycat had something to do with Beacon. The parents of Russel Thrush graduated from Beacon University many years ago; he was also an incoming undergraduate. Penny Polendina was one of the rare young prodigies who was suppose to attend Beacon. Emerald Sustrai was a graduate student. Peter Port was a professor, and Cardin Winchester was an alumni.

"To think I needed Ruby to find some sort of connection," she chastised herself as she shook her head. Her phone rang and interrupted her though process. Weiss sighed as picked up her phone, but not before tucking it between her ear and her shoulders.

"What is it Coco?" She answered, her hands delicately worked on the white board.

 _"Copycat claimed another victim."_

"What?!" Weiss shouted, her mouth unceremoniously hung wide open in shock. She briefly looked at the time, and it was barely past 5 PM. The sun hasn't set, and Copycat had made another move. Something wasn't right.

 _"You need to come now. At the hotel, From Dust til Dawn."_

"On my way."

Weiss gritted her teeth and tossed her dry erase marker to the side. She grabbed her keys and dashed into her black Sedan, an identical version to Coco's. She shifted the gears, and quickly drove all the way to hotel. By the time she got there, yellow caution tape surrounded the area and Coco was talking to Sun.

"What happened," Weiss demanded as she rushed out of her car.

"What do you think," Coco said dryly. Weiss didn't give her an amused look and Coco raised both hands defensively. "The guest was suppose to check out a little while ago, but he didn't. When front office called, no one picked up. They sent one of their employees to go inform their guest before they evicted him out. When their employee knocked, no one answered. So they carded themselves in, and the rest you can guess what happened."

"A _mess?"_ Weiss shot out.

"Along the lines of it," she answered. "Follow me, I'll show you." Weiss followed her partner into the hotel. They rode the elevator to the tenth floor, and Coco continued. "The employee reported that they didn't notice any odor outside the door."

"Which means the kill was fairly recent," she deducted.

"Yep, definitely less than 24 hours. The victim turned out to be Flynt Coal, a young man who manages Beacon band team."

"Of course it's another one from Beacon..." Weiss sighed.

The elevator slowed into the stop and the sliding doors opened for them. As Weiss followed Coco, there at room 1031 were yellow caution tapes blockading the door post and around the hall. Both agents presented their badges and ducked under the tape.

Red.

Every shades of red marred most of the room, defiling it with its bloody mess. When Weiss stepped in, she drank at the crimson sight with her blue eyes. One portion of the wall was stained red more than the other. The bed was like a battleground, and the floor was tainted between trickles of blood to a small pool of it.

"You want to take a look at the bathroom," Coco advised.

Weiss followed the blood body trail towards the bathroom like Coco suggested. When she walked right in, she reflexively cover her mouth at the dreaded horror. Hacked remains of the victim was bathing in their own pool of blood in the tub. Legs, arms, and the head barely peeped out of its viscous liquid, floating as if it was some thick stew, while the limbless body sunk to the bottom. There was no signature of the killer's name but a crumpled cryptic note laid on top of the toilet seat lid. Weiss made sure to slip on gloves before picking up the paper to read it.

 _A possible mistake on my own end for my previous disgrace._ _  
 _But now, the players and the pieces are set in place._  
 _You may have attentively raised your defense,_  
 _but this nightmare game barely commenced._  
 _I will be leaving hints as part of my plan,_  
 _so I dare you, catch me if you can.__

 _Copycat._

Weiss growled at the taunting message. She wanted to shred the infuriating paper, but she couldn't get rid of useful evidence, especially when this was the first time Copycat had provoke them.

"What do you think?" Coco asked. She lifted her sunglasses off her face to get a better lighting on Weiss's reaction.

"I was hoping your suspicion wasn't correct. But that was too much to hope for," Weiss sighed as she handed the paper to Coco. Her partner aseptically placed it in a bag. "Ruby Rose's assailant is Copycat.

She was sure Copycat referred Ruby as her disgrace. It wouldn't make any sense for the killer to refer Cardin as a result of a shameful murder. There was not a piece of evidence left behind in that homicide; it was a perfect murder.

Weiss strode out of the bathroom and scanned the room again. Furniture were not upturned and lamps stayed perfectly in their position.

"No signs of struggle," she murmured aloud.

She noted a denser pool of blood near the closet; the door was unusually wide open. Weiss took a deep breath and allowed her mind to freely picture the scene.

She had imagined Copycat hid inside the closet and bid their time until it was right. When it was perfect, Copycat probably launched towards their target with a sharp weapon.

Weiss carefully stepped over the small pool of blood and followed the trickles towards the wall. She crouched and carefully inspected the exterior, trying to ignore the smeared stains. There were deep, short valleys along the walls that she could easily tell. Bits of paint were chipped off along the gorge.

"Victim was ambushed, stabbed, and rammed against the wall," Coco spoke exactly what was on Weiss's mind.

"I assume they were pierced somewhere on the abdomen." Weiss noted how the cut on the wall was above her waist. She pointed at the soaked carpet. The blood wasn't dried yet and it was spreading along the bottom edge of the wall. "Victim probably remained stuck in this spot for awhile. He lost a lot of blood." She then pointed the half-dried arc along the wall. "Body was dragged against the surface. Then probably dragged to the bed."

"I would call out necrophilia, but I highly doubt it."

"I doubt it too." Weiss shook her head and walked closer to the edge of the bed. "We can still check around, but it's not in her behavior to sexually assault her victims. She probably used the bed like a butchering table to cut through her victim."

She pointed now towards the bed. There were gashes on the blanket almost as if it went through a paper shredder.

"And now that we know Copycat is most likely a woman, we can narrow down our suspects." Coco nodded as she caught the gender-specific pronoun in her sentence.

"Correct, and also, where is the rest of the team?" Weiss scanned around again. She noted the connecting doors between the two room, and gave a questioning hum.

"They're outside questioning the people who resided on the tenth floor. They already caught a glimpse of the scene."

"Good good," she nodded. "See if you can search around the place for more clues. I need to do something really quick."

The platinum haired agent marched outside the room and made her way to the lobby. Majority of the floor was devoid of customers. They were escorted outside by the police to wait for further instructions.

"Excuse me," Weiss called out to one of the workers behind the desk. The employee looked up, a little shaken and confused by the entire situation the hotel was going through. "Can you tell me who was residing in the neighboring rooms of 1031?"

She flashed her badge, so the worker wouldn't question why.

"U-Uh yeah of course!" The employee quickly searched through the computer. "Both rooms were occupied by a person name Cinder Fall. She paid in full cash for two nights and three days."

"Cinder Fall?" Weiss murmured softly, cupping her own chin in contemplation. "Can I get the key for that room?" She then flashed her search permit and the employee nodded, giving her the room key. "Thank you."

The agent went back to the tenth floor. She caught a glimpse of Coco still in the room, examining every inch for any other evidence. Weiss ignored the 'do not disturb' sign at the room over, and slid the card into the scanner and entered.

Unlike the next room over, this one was more immaculate. Everything was tidy, no mess, no luggage, and no misplaced items. The first thing Weiss did when she first strode inside was to look at the connecting doors. She scoured the doorway and her eyes trailed all the way down to the carpet.

She crouched low to the floor and narrowed her eyes at the carpet's fiber

"Visible shoe prints in blood, but fairly faint," she mumbled to herself. She followed the shoe prints which led to the middle of the room and it abruptly stopped right there. "Must've changed footwear and probably attire too."

Weiss scoured the room once more before she left the room. "Coco," she called out as she swung to the doorpost. "Did you find anything?"

"No, nothing." Her partner shook her head and exited out the room. They were both standing in the hallway and the stench of iron coming from the room was becoming more pungent. "The only piece of physical evidence that Copycat left in that room was the note. Did you end up doing what you needed to do?"

"Yeah I did. The two rooms next to 1031 is under the same name, someone by the name of Cinder Fall. There were a few traces of bloody shoeprints but it's a dead trail."

"I'll go look into the system for Cinder Fall," Coco stated. The two agents were now making their way back to the lobby. "Do you think it was her?"

"Don't know honestly. But I don't think Copycat is that stupid to put her name down under a room."

"Well hopefully if we find this Cinder, she can answer a few questions."

"Unless she decides to remain silent," Weiss huffed. "Come with me to the security room for a second."

They both steered their way across the lobby and into the security room. They flashed their badges, and the lower ranked security guard allowed them to proceed. Weiss placed a copy of the security tape into a flash drive for future references, but decided to watch the colored footage in that moment.

People were moving in and out of the hotel, minding their own usual business. No one was acting suspicious, or leaving in such a hurry. Weiss flicked through the surveillance camera to the elevator, but it was obviously empty. Next, she switch it to the tenth floor, and kept an eye on the outside of the victim's room. A blurred image appeared from the camera's blind spot and quickly stopped by at the front door. Before the image could even clear up, the camera lost connection from there.

"Of course..." Weiss bitterly spat.

She rewind the video to the same day Cinder Fall had booked the room, and they both continued to watch in silence.

A woman with ashen-black hair appeared at the door, the room next to 1031. She slid the card through and shut the door behind her. A minute later, she came out from the room and placed a 'do not disturb' sign at the knob.

The agents fast forward the recording, and discovered that the woman had left the hotel and never went back to the room again.

"How strange," Weiss murmured. "Your thoughts?"

Coco rhythmically tapped her fingers along the table and watched Weiss rewind the recording back to the woman. She paused there and waited for a response. "I'm thinking the woman just booked the room to have it vacant to make it easier for Copycat," she suspected. "Walls aren't exactly thick in the hotel, so having the room empty makes it easier. Less people aware of weird noises, less witnesses."

"So are you saying that this —" Weiss pointed to the woman on the screen. "Cinder Fall was either coerced or bribed into setting everything up?"

"It's just a suspicion since we're not really convinced that Copycat is stupid enough to leave a name down. We can go trace the street cameras to see where Cinder went afterwards."

"Very well." Weiss exhaled through her nose. "We can take a look at it later. For now, let's meet up with the others outside."

The two agents thanked the security guard who was silently standing behind them. When they both exited out the hotel, they met up with the rest of the team.

"Any witnesses?" Weiss asked. She eyed her three co-investigator who were helping out in this major case.

"Well... We questioned what we could," the blond agent ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "There were basically no witnesses. Employees just said that it was like usual business. Customers walk in and out everyday with their luggage. As for the guest, either they didn't hear anything or they weren't present during that time. Velvet? Ren? Do you have anymore to add?"

"Apparently," Ren started. "Flynt decided to stay at the hotel to attend a two day conference. Today was the day their meeting was suppose to end, the same day he was suppose to check out."

"And even though Copycat is targeting Beacon students," Velvet added in. "I suspect that's all there is to it. The victims aren't in any way connected to each other. They're just indirectly or directly affiliated with Beacon in some way."

"Which makes it harder to hunt Copycat down." Weiss stroke her temples as if there was a throbbing headache. "We can discuss more in the office later. Can one of you guys get access of the street cameras from three days before."

"I'll do it," Velvet volunteered.

"Thank you Velvet. I have a few matters to attend to. I'm going to drop by to Ruby Rose's apartment. I have to break the news to her since she has every right to know who attacked her."

Coco gave her a look of concern, but Weiss responded with a look she understood too well. It was the look that told her not to speak a word.

She sighed afterwards. "I'm going to talk with Sun. I have a feeling Copycat will be on the move more often too. It's best if we can ask them to add more patrols around the area."

"That might be a good idea," Jaune agreed. "Ren and I are going to take more photographs around the area. Probably do a final walk through for any tiniest piece of evidence."

"Make a final walk through in the neighboring rooms also," Weiss instructed. "I've already checked but it doesn't hurt to check again."

The team split up from there, and Weiss strode to the car. Midway into her walk, a blue haired man smoothly glided next to her and flashed his million dollar smile in his officer uniform. He seemed quite familiar, but Weiss didn't give enough shits to wonder why he did. She was too busy juggling things in her mind.

"Hey Snow Angel," he greeted using his best wooing voice. "The name's Neptune. I was wondering —"

Weiss held a hand to save him from his embarrassment.

"I'm gay," she said sourly.

She walked off not bothering to give him the time of her day. When she entered her car and drove all the way to Ruby's apartment, she kept a watchful eye on the streets for any suspicious activities. However, nothing questionable caught her attention.

The only questionable thing was that heavy feeling welling in her chest and her finger anxiously tapping against the wheel. The nervous ball tightening in her chest grew worse when she was approached her destination. It was like that heated anxiety when you're next in line even though you really don't want to be.

When she did arrived, she pulled over to the curb and sat momentarily still, not budging and not daring to get out of the car.

"How the hell am I suppose to break the news to her," she sighed once more. The back of her head dully thumped against seat, and she turned to glance at the apartment building.

She racked her brain to figure out how to approach Ruby on this sensitive topic. It wasn't easy task to tell someone that a serial killer targeted them and the possibility of getting attacked again was pretty high up there. But what she was most concern was how Ruby receives this information. She wouldn't know how she will react upon hearing this.

Weiss took a deep breath, and got enough courage to get out of the car.

She was hoping everything will turn out okay.

* * *

 **Hopefully this chapter is better, and the same with future chapters. Ren, Jaune, and Velvet was originally going to make their debut later, as well as Cinder, but I'm pushing it closer.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Those who doesn't know, chapter 4 has been rewritten and posted awhile ago. New information, new clues, and such. Author notes from that chapter explains most of it.**

* * *

Weiss could probably set the whole door into blaze from how much she was staring at the mounted peephole. It's not like she could see through anything in the lens, but she had to stare at something.

She had already rang the doorbell, and now she was just waiting. Her hands were knotted together behind her back to keep them from ringing buzzer again. Her foot tapped in a unbroken rhythm not because of her impatience, but because she was worried what would happen in the next hour or so.

She had done this plenty of time because her job calls for it. She was a bearer of news, sometimes bad, but some were good. When she needed to break the bad news in, she did felt anxious. Bad news never leaves a smile on the person's face. But for some reason, this one was more unnerving than the others she had come across.

Right when Weiss picked up the sound of multiple bolts unlatching from the other side of the door, she drew in a deep breath.

Ruby was quick to swing the door wide open, and she poked her head out with a smile.

"Hey Weiss," she chirped. A towel hung around her neck and her hair was damp. "You um —" There was a sheepish look on her face. "Came earlier than I expected. Come on in."

"Thank you Ruby," Weiss said politely. The floor creaked beneath her when strode right through and sat on the same couch she had sat previously before. "I'm sorry that it's not our usual schedule. How's your head doing?"

"Oh no problem, and a lot better actually." Her hand gently lifted her wet bangs for Weiss to see. Not too far from the corner of her head was a nasty scabbed bump blemishing her skin. It was definitely healing, but it was a slow process. "It doesn't hurt anymore... Unless I touch it!"

Weiss raised her eyebrows, not in surprise, but closer towards perplexed. "I'm not a doctor, but I'm sure Dr. Nikos would agree with me that you shouldn't probe at it."

"It's kind of hard when you have a bump on your head that could pass as a notorious red button," Ruby chuckled. She removed the towel from her neck to set it down somewhere more appropriate. "Oh, let me at least make you some tea."

She was prepared to head into the kitchen, but Weiss stopped her before she turned on her heels.

"That's okay." The agent shook her head. "I won't be staying too long for today. There's a lot of work that needs to be tended. I just need to inform you a few details that you should be aware of."

"Details?" She sat a cushion away from her frowning in concern. "Is there something wrong?"

"Just... A few worries that's all," Weiss cleared her throat. She kept her eyes locked onto Ruby, watching and interpreting every expression she made. "Do you remember how I told you the first time we met I had an idea of your attacker?

She blinked twice, perplexed, nervous, but yet relieved.

"Yes I do."

Ruby was attentive as she looked at Weiss back.

"We now have evidence to support our suspicions," Weiss stated. There was this blob of disheartening feeling weighing down her chest. It was always there when she broke the bad news; it was expected, but she never liked it.

"Were you guys able to find her?"

A sense of relief brightened Ruby's face.

"I'm sorry, not yet," the agent shook her head.

The relief was wiped off like a makeup remover.

"But we do know for certain who attacked you." Weiss felt unsettled when she spoke because the time was nearing.

Ruby perked up to the new information, anxious for the revelation.

"There was a cryptic message left behind —" Weiss hesitated for a moment, a thick liquid slowly slid down her esophagus when she swallowed. "And the note turned out to be none other than Copycat."

"Uh huh," Ruby uttered at first.

She waited for Weiss to resume, but there was nothing left to continue. Ruby sat motionlessly still in her seat, her lips barely parted open, and the gears in her head turned. Her face soon paled when she caught on what Weiss had meant.

"Oh..." Was all she could barely say at the moment.

Weiss inwardly sighed as she watched Ruby fidget with her hands. Ruby grinded her fingers against each other while rubbing the nail beds anxiously.

"I'm sorry Ruby." Weiss noted the silent shudder from her, and she curled her lips down as she watched how tense Ruby's shoulders was. "I know this is heavy information to take in, and I can understand why you're shaken." She maintained eye contact in a form of concern. She reached slowly, carefully placing a comforting hand over hers. She made sure the physical contact was not too startling or invoked additional sense of unease. "Is there anything else I can do? I know I offered security, but is there anything else I can do for you?"

Ruby then shook her head, her eyes swiveled to the floor. The position of their hand reversed as Ruby wrapped her hand against the agent. She began kneading it, something that Weiss noticed Ruby tend to do when she was feeling anxious. She did it earlier and a few times in the hospital.

They stayed like that for a moment. Weiss didn't mind. She listened to her breathing and counted the seconds between the soft inhales and exhales; One. Two. Three. One. Two Three.

Ruby was taking slow deep breaths.

"I want you to remain aware of your surroundings. If you see anything suspicious, please let me know," Weiss gently informed her. "I know this might be a little sudden, but I'm going to need to ask you the same questioned I asked you before — if that's alright with you."

She needed to reconfirm her story once more to make sure everything was accurate before her and her team convened to discuss further.

There was subsequent intervals of squeezing and soft kneading that Weiss could feel through her hand. She took Ruby's head nod as a sign of approval.

"What was a lot on your mind before you went out?"

Weiss waited patiently for Ruby to respond. There was no need to press or rush her for details. She tolerated the silence, and even welcomed it if it helped.

"Nightmares," she answered softly. Her eyes darted between the floor and her apartment, but they could never meet Weiss'.

"I woke up with a nightmare. I don't know why, but I felt like the best option was to take a stroll," Ruby continued to explain. "So I walked, and you know that creepy sensation where you feel like you're being watched?"

Weiss nodded in response. She felt it before. It was a frightening feeling to experience, but her job made her tolerate it when she was put out there in the field.

"There was this _feeling_ like someone was watching me and following me, so I picked up my pace. I walked faster and I kept walking faster. When I made a quick second worth glance over my shoulders, there was like... A woman."

"A woman?" Weiss repeated as she nodded to her story.

"It was kind of fuzzy, but it was a woman," Ruby quietly confirmed. "I ran and I made a phone call to the police like any other person would do." Weiss continued to nod as she listened attentively. "While making a phone call, things felt hazier, then there was pain, and everything turned dark." Ruby closed her eyes, trying to keep a steady breath. "Sorry that's all I can remember right now."

"That's okay, Ruby. Thank you." Weiss matched the same leveled voice and gently squeezed her hand again. "You did a fine job."

"Thanks Weiss," she tried to smile, but she failed to. The kneading had stopped, and Weiss pulled her hand away as Ruby seemed a little more composed than earlier. "Just need some time to accept all of this."

"Of course." The agent nodded understandingly. "Take as much time as you need. If you ever feel like your mind is clouded, or you just need someone to talk to, you are more than welcome to contact me."

Ruby bobbed her head appreciatively then silently glanced at her hand that was now between her lap.

"Would you like some time alone?" The concern never left Weiss, and her eyes had not moved away from Ruby.

Ruby shook her head. "If it's okay with you... Can you stay a little longer? Just to — um." She weakly shrugged. "Talk. Talking helps."

Weiss smiled with another understanding nod. It was a silly question of her to ask, but she had to bring it up at least once. She didn't know if Ruby preferred to be alone with someone close to her, or her presence was enough to bring comfort.

"Would you like me to contact Yang?" Weiss suggested when the thought suddenly came to mind.

"Please don't," she blurted out.

The agent was taken by surprised of the quick pleading response she got from Ruby. Despite how she had a different opinion on this matter, she kept it to herself. Ruby sounded adamant when she spoke.

"At least... Not yet." Ruby continued as she twiddled with her thumbs. "She sacrificed so much for me. I don't want her to worry right now."

"I know what you mean."

Knowing a thing or two about older sisters, she understood how much of a protective worrywart they can be. By now, Weiss took this as an opportunity to jump onto a different subject, something that was more 'talk' like Ruby had wanted.

"My older sister use to be like that before," Weiss continued. "We showed our love through dry sarcasms, but nevertheless, we cared for each other. She sacrificed a lot for me. Her time, her patience, and sometimes her hair when I drove her crazy."

That got Ruby to chuckle. It was faint, but it was there. She seemed less tensed than before as her shoulders were more relaxed.

"Yang is like that too," Ruby started out. "Queen of sarcasms. Master of puns. You name it. She has a terrible sense of humor, but she always did her best to make me happy."

"She sounds like an amazing sister."

"She is," she briefly gushed. "She's like a super sister. Always putting me first on her list, and made sure I was okay." Then Ruby sighed. "But I guess that worries me. Ever since our dad passed away, she sacrificed a lot."

Weiss had recalled reading on a short profile on Ruby that the father of the two sisters was deceased. Yang immediately stepped up to become Ruby's guardian and took full responsibility for her.

"Yang couldn't continue school because she had to support me. There were so many bumps in the road to get where we're at. But we're happy — I know she's happy right now. She basically has it all — looks, wits, she loves her job, and she has a loving girlfriend."

The last couple of words in her sentence lingered in Weiss' mind that she barely caught Ruby's follow up question.

"So how about you?"

The agent raised an eyebrow at the vague question, hoping for clarification on the unambiguous question.

"What's your sister like?"

"Well," Weiss started "My sister is much older than me. When I mean much, I really mean _much_."

"Like 5 years?" Ruby stabbed at it.

"Try 9," she said. "But anyways, there's not much to say. We were raised the same way, so we're almost alike — well mannered and eloquent." She then shrugged. "But she's just better in most things. She's not like how you would phrase it, a super sister. She didn't really raise me, but she guided me every step of the way, and I'm grateful for that."

"Our sisters are amazing..."

"Indeed they are," Weiss chuckled.

"But I think you're even more amazing," she said quietly. When Weiss flashed a subtle look of surprise, and Ruby glanced back down to her hands again. "Just watching you trying to hunt down — " she swallowed, "Copycat, is amazing. You're fearless and determined. I know it's your job..." She barely shrugged her shoulders. "But it's amazing."

"Thank you Ruby," Weiss pulled back into a smile. "That means a lot. Determined, yes." She huffed through her nose. "But courageous seems more of a fitting word than fearless. I'm just doing my part to protect the city, even you as well."

Ruby smiled as well before she glanced back up from her hands. Their eyes met, and they basked in the silence for a brief second.

Weiss's phone vibrated right after, and she made a quick check.

"I apologize Ruby." Her smile was meek. "But our conversation has to cut short. The workload that was piling needs to be tended immediately."

It wasn't a call, but a short message that Weiss couldn't ignore.

A message from Velvet:

 _I got what you wanted, and we know where Cinder is at._


	6. Chapter 6

Cinder didn't even know why she was called to sit in this interrogation room. Some people dressed in tacky clothing came knocking on her doorstep. Of course, she would've hissed and tell them to fuck off, but the shiny badges and laminated card flashed in front of her face told her not to.

She sighed as she sat in the dimly lit room. It was looking more like those cliché movie scenes in crime shows that she watched a few times. But at least it didn't look like prison — something she grew quite acquainted with.

She tapped her nails impatiently on the table as she leaned into her palm.

Cinder was getting bored...

...Bored out of her mind.

She was told to sit and wait like some obedient dog. If she could've, she would've flipped the table and flip them the high bird while she was at it. _No one_ tells her what to do. She established that rule in prison quite well. But now that she was on parole, she was forced to be on her best behavior.

"Right in here..." Came the voice when the door cracked opened, putting an end Cinder's boredom.

Two women came striding in. To Cinder, one looked like she had a stick up her ass and the other... looked like a stick.

"Cinder Fall," the woman with the stick up her ass said. "I'm Agent Schnee. And this here is Agent Scarlatina."

"Get straight to the point," Cinder said dryly.

Weiss smirked when Cinder wasted no time. She pulled up a chair across from her and sat down. "Velvet if you would please."

Velvet pulled out a tablet and sat down in the last vacant seat. She pulled up a video feed of what happened at the day of the hotel.

The recording captured the front of the hotel and a block down the street. She fast forward the video to the time stamp instructed by Weiss, and a familiar woman exited the building, quickly pacing down the sidewalk.

Velvet paused the video and glanced up to Cinder.

"A murder took place in this hotel," Velvet started off.

"Fucking bullshit. I didn't do it," Cinder snarled at her.

"We said nothing to accuse you," Weiss shot her a warning look to tone that attitude of hers. "You book a couple of rooms. Care to explain?"

"I did," Cinder bit out. "And that's all I did."

"I was hoping for more details," Weiss subtly rolled her eyes at her. "The faster you can answer our questions descriptively, then the faster you can make your way to the exit. I'm sure you have better things to do other than sit in this unbearable room."

Cinder grumbled a heavy sigh.

"Remember Cinder, you're on parole." Weiss instantly turned to Velvet with a smile. "Velvet, would you consider this her _best_ behavior?"

"Why Weiss," Velvet faked a shock expression, placing a hand over her chest. "I do believe she can do better."

"Okay fine," Cinder slumped back into the chair. "I was paid to book the rooms."

"By who?"

"How should I know? You think I go asking for her name and for her number? Might as well ask for her address and buy her dinner while I'm at it."

"Her?" Weiss noted the specific word.

"I didn't know your listening comprehension was poor Agent Schnee," Cinder scoffed. "I was paid triple the amount for booking the room under my name. As long as I checked in and out at the appropriate times."

"Can you describe this woman who asked you?" Velvet questioned. "Like was she tall? Was she short? The color of her eyes? Maybe color of her hair? A trait that's noticeable about her...?"

"Shorter than me that's for sure."

"How short are we talking about," Weiss questioned next.

"Don't know," she shrugged. "Half a head or more?"

"How about hair?"

"Don't know," Cinder said again. "Hat and hoodie practically covers it up."

"Eyes?"

"She's short remember?" Cinder sound annoyed. "Always looking down as I towered over her by a margin."

"Anything else you noticed about her? I don't know... Maybe a certain smell to her?"

"Jesus Christ," Cinder scrunched her face in disgust. "You think I go sniffing around strangers?"

"I'll take that as a no," Weiss rubbed her temples. "How about her voice? Describe her voice to me."

"Snarky like yours."

"Be more descriptive." Even Velvet wanted to roll her eyes.

"I don't know... Sounds like every normal voice to me. But there's something dark behind it. It lacked innocence, but yet there is."

"How do you know?"

"I'm positive one of you looked through my records considering you know I'm on parole. I'm sure you two know why I landed in prison in the first place."

"Associated with a notorious gang and sold illegal drugs," Weiss cut it briefly. "I've done my reading."

"Meaning there's killing going around from the insane," Cinder spoke quite clearly. "People act and look innocent, but you don't know if they harbor a murderous demon inside of them. I know what they sound like. I've seen them first hand. And that woman... She sounds like these kind of people. She fits the bill."

"Duly noted," Weiss murmured as she ingrained it in her head. "Do you have any other questions Velvet?" She received a head shake and Weiss continued. "Thank you for your time Ms. Fall. If we have any more questions, we'll be sure to ask."

"Sure," she muttered as she proceeded to leave the room with Velvet escorting her out.

* * *

Weiss folded her arms and leaned back into her chair around the conference table. While Ren and Coco were off retrieving a few documents, Velvet, Jaune and her sat around waiting for their return.

While they waited, Jaune chomped a few chips.

"Can you munch any louder?" Weiss sharply turned her head to Jaune who paused in the middle of chewing. His eyebrow rose quite high and he even dared to reach into the bag to pop two more chips. He deliberately chewed obnoxiously louder with his mouth purposely wide open.

"Of course you can..."

"What can I say?" Jaune chuckled after he swallowed. He scooped the rest of the remains into his mouth, but had the decency to eat with his mouth closed. "I need brain food. All this work is frying my brain. You want a bag?"

Weiss couldn't respond because he tossed the bag to her anyways. A heavy crinkling sound gave out when the plastic package landed in front of her against the table. She darted a look at Jaune, but he nudged his head and shrugged his shoulder.

"Take it. You need more food than I do."

"Jaune knows the best way to get to a woman's heart is through her stomach," Velvet commented with a small laugh. "Got one for me too?"

Jaune magically pulled another bag from underneath the table and tossed her one.

"Thanks!"

"It's a shame I'm attracted to my own gender." Weiss joked, lips curving as she neatly pulled the bag apart. "Thank you Jaune."

It squeaked open and a faint enriching scent of deep fried potatoes slipped through her nostrils. She picked up a chip with the bare minimum of her fingers and quietly munched on it. Velvet peeked at what flavored she had and dared to steal her chip before Weiss could pull away. Weiss scowled at the thief but Velvet only gave her a warm playful smile.

The door of the room jerked open and the three agents turned their head to the disruption.

Ren and Coco hurried into the room with stacks of papers in hand, splaying out on the table.

With one of her cleaner hand, Weiss flipped through one of the packets and her brows creased as she looked through the first page.

"One of them is a full profile on Ruby Rose," Coco informed. "Took awhile, but Ren and I managed to collect what we could get."

"Have you taken a look at it?" Weiss inquired.

"In a way, yes. I mean we had to look at it since we're finding information. But as a collective report, no. Ren and I were about to until you guys messaged us for an unscheduled meeting. Since we're all here, might as well look at it together. There's a copy for each of us. That way, we're on the same page."

Coco divided the papers amongst them and everyone accepted it graciously.

"The other stack behind it should be Flynt Coal if you want to know more details." Ren commented as he watched Weiss casually slip a chip into her mouth and crunched on it while flipping through the pages.

"Now that we're all here," Weiss swallowed down her food. "We can discuss. Velvet and I had a little talk with Cinder before we came here. Obviously, she's not Copycat. Copycat only paid her to book the rooms, and that's how she made the kill."

"Did she note or describe any appearances?" Coco asked.

"Not exactly," Velvet answered. "The only useful information we got was her height. She's shorter than Cinder, and Cinder is around 5'9?"

"She's tall..." Jaune muttered. "But Coco is freakishly taller."

"Excuse me," Coco glared at him when she lowered her sunglasses.

"Back to the point..." Weiss trailed off. "Cinder described her with a hat and a hoodie. Did anyone of you recognize that feature amongst the crowd or in the video feed?"

Ren shook his head. "No. Jaune and I stayed back in the crime scene to see if Copycat would dare to go back to the scene of the crime. No one seemed off. They were distracted and confused with what was going on rather than watching our moves."

"Should we add some kind of tamper detection?" Velvet suggested.

"Not the best move considering we don't know who Copycat will strike next. Vale is too big of a city."

"So we know for sure Copycat has something to do with Beacon considering they're targeting anyone associated with it," Velvet went on. "Maybe it's a staff or a student in the school?"

"Who knows," Coco replied whimsically. "Serial killers tend to blend in with the crowd. They're charismatic and function properly like any normal human being would."

Weiss frowned as she sat still in contemplation. She recalled Cinder saying about how the woman sounded dark, but yet innocent.

But what kind of tone did that sound like?

"How's Ruby doing?" Coco asked Weiss.

"Living and breathing which is good," Weiss sighed.

"Does she remember anything from the incident?" Jaune couldn't help but to wonder aloud. "Cause now that we know for sure Copycat attacked Ruby, we just need her memories to solve the case."

"No, I'm afraid not," Weiss responded. "If she did, we would've have this all wrapped in a bag already."

"You mean in a body bag?" Coco snickered.

"I will put you in one myself, and I will gladly do it with a smile."

"All bark but no bite," she teased. Weiss scoffed at her and folded her arms across her chest, fingernails tapping along the side of her arm.

"So why would a serial killer need to target someone who is or was associated with Beacon?" Velvet muttered aloud, jumping back to the topic before they go off tangent.

"Jealousy?"

"Power?"

"Gratification?"

"Insecurity?"

"Revenge?"

Many ideas sprung onto the table as the agents tossed hypothetical answers. However it didn't get very far because they were all assumptions of a killer's behavior that they learned previously beforehand.

"We can make one of us a target?" Jaune suggested weakly.

"We can..." Weiss put a little more consideration to his suggestion. "Jaune somehow graduated from Beacon. We can throw him out there. Feed him to the wolves. Or in this case... Copycat."

"Hey!" The blond man exclaimed in offense, but Weiss ignored him.

"We all graduated from Beacon at some point in our lives," Velvet chuckled. "We're technically potential targets."

"True," Coco finger pointed back at Velvet, nodding her head.

"But Jaune graduating Beacon? There has to be some mistake," Weiss snorted, playful but yet, still serious.

"Wait..." A grim expression overshadowed Ren's face as something dawned on him. "A mistake..."

"Don't tell me you agree too Ren," Jaune groaned, rounding his shoulders forward from the lack of support.

"No no no. Let's take a few steps back." All four FBI agents looked at Ren with an awaiting look. "Copycat never had made a mistake in her life, but then she fails to kill Ruby Rose. Don't you think that it's a little too strange?"

"Agreed," the four said in unison.

"So out of all the times in her life, why now?" Ren continued on. "Remember the cryptic message Copycat had left? She said it was a _possible_ mistake on her own end for her disgrace. A disgrace for not ending Ruby's Rose life in that moment."

"So you're saying, she's made it look like she slipped up but she didn't," Weiss caught an idea of Ren's perception.

"So Copycat purposefully let Ruby Rose live," Velvet summarized shortly.

"But the reason is why?" Jaune looked at all four of them, but their eyes were searching for answers too.

"She later said that the players and pieces are now in place," Ren continued his analysis. "So we know that Copycat is obviously a player. If you think of this as a cat and mouse game, we could be potentially as players as well. But how about Ruby Rose? What if she's the piece to this game?"

"But how is Ruby Rose part of her piece?" Coco added into their growing list of questions.

A silent pause.

"The papers," Weiss muttered. "Ruby's profile. Look through it."

Every shuffled around their designated papers and flip through the pages of Ruby. Their eyes scanned every content and they gathered their thoughts back onto the open table.

"Ruby Rose... Age 21," Coco mumbled loudly as she read verbatim. "Attending Beacon as a computer science major."

"Half sister of Yang Xiao Long. They share the same father but different mothers..."

"Their father Taiyang Xiao Long originally married Raven Branwen, Yang's mother. However, Raven didn't find out much later that her husband was having an affair behind her back with another woman named Summer Rose. There was... Well an accident, and Summer was pregnant with Ruby."

"Raven filed for a divorce multiple times, but Taiyang refused to sign the paper. It took her a couple of years to get a petition and get him to court, but during the time period, the family faced a rough patch."

"Neither of the two women were fond of each other so the house was typically chaotic. A multitude of complaints were filed by the neighbors because of their constant fights, bickers, etcetera... Their uncle, Qrow Branwen, twin brother of Raven, stepped in a few times whenever he possibly could. Record shows that he took Yang to the hospital due to a few bruises and scratches for intercepting fights."

"According to the comment section in her medical file," Velvet pointed out. "Yang was protecting her sister and herself from their mothers' verbal and physical arguments."

"Medical files were listed under Ruby Rose in her record stating that she experienced a few memory loss. Doctors suspect that it was possibly due to the stressful environment she was living in."

"I remember Ruby confessing that to me in the hospital," Weiss nodded to the latest information. "She said it stopped at six years old."

"Well we know why it stopped now," Jaune muttered. "Listen here. When Ruby was at the age of six, Summer Rose was found murdered in the Rose-Xiao Long household."

The room stayed quiet for a bit, and Jaune took it as a note to continue.

"The assailant was never found. When the police arrived at the scene, Summer Rose was already dead. Taiyang was working during that time, Raven had already divorced and separated from the family long before the incident, and Qrow died two years before that from alcohol poisoning."

"As for the kids," Jaune hesitated a little. "Yang apparently had a play date at someone else's house and Ruby went missing."

"Police had deducted that she was kidnapped by the killer, but she returned a few days later. There were injuries all over — bruises, scratches, cuts, gashes, and possibility of concussion."

Weiss glowered a little, clenching her hand into a fist.

"Police tried asking Ruby what had happened, but they didn't get much from questioning her. She responded with trembles and incomprehensible jabbers, which they presume was from the traumatic incident, and she stated that she couldn't remember, which could possibly be due to the head concussion."

Weiss rubbed her temples, letting the information sink her head. She never knew Ruby had a rough past, and the feeling of protecting her only grew more.

"After that, the incident was never brought up and Summer Rose's killer was never found. That was the last time Ruby reported of having memory issues. Approximately five years ago, their father passed away from a car crash at night due to a drunk driver. As a result, Yang became Ruby's guardian and dropped out of Beacon University to support her sister."

"Do you think it is possible that Copycat could've killed Summer Rose?" Velvet gulped, feeling a bit shaken from the story.

"It could be possible," Weiss answered. "But we can't say for sure. That incident happened 15 years ago. Ruby never mentioned the age of her attacker. But we do know that something is linked to Ruby Rose."

"If I may?" Ren spoke up. Weiss gestured to let him have the floor. "If Copycat was Summer Rose's killer, then it's possible that she wants to torture Ruby slowly with her PTSD, and finish the job later."

"And if it wasn't?" Jaune brought up another point.

"Then it's possible that our current serial killer is mimicking the killer of Summer Rose, hence the alias name, Copycat."

"Two possibilities, but no conclusion," Coco sighed. "But it's nice to know that we're going somewhere with all of this."

"Agreed," Velvet nodded.

"Was there anything else that could prompt Summer Rose's death?" Weiss frowned, throwing the question out on the table for grabs.

"Other than her affair with Taiyang, I don't see any reason why she would be murdered," Jaune answered. "She did graduated from Beacon a long time ago. Her, Raven, Taiyang, and Qrow graduated the same year."

"Nothing major catches my attention about Taiyang..." Weiss murmured. "Is there anything in the paper that has something about Raven Branwen? Cause I'm not finding anything in this document."

"Neither am I," Ren flipped through the pages.

"None here," Jaune scanned through it.

"Nope," a voice chimed from Coco.

"Let me see if I can pull it through my laptop..." Velvet muttered. Her eyes darted everywhere on the screen, clicking and scrolling to find any information about Raven. "I can't find anything on Raven."

"What do you mean?" Weiss glowered.

"She literally disappeared off the map..."

"That's not possible..." Weiss muttered softly. She made a mental note to make an important phone call to see if she could track down Raven.

"You think she's a possible candidate?" Jaune asked.

"Can't exactly say for sure," Weiss knitted her brows together. "But hypothetically if she was Copycat, then why? It's possible that she would want revenge on Summer, but wouldn't she want revenge on Taiyang as well? Taiyang died from a car crash, not from a murder. And how do you explain all these recent victims?"

"She went bat shit crazy?" Coco shrugged.

"I mean we do have a psychopath on the loose..." Ren murmured in agreement.

"We can look through more later to see if we can find any other details on her," Weiss said. "Right now, we can't say it's Raven. That's jumping too far into conclusions."

"So we know that Ruby Rose will be on Copycat's list in some point in her life," Jaune started. "Do you think we can use her to bait out Copycat?"

"No," Weiss immediately rejected, followed with a scowl.

"Why not?" The blond agent tilted his head, puzzled. "It's not a bad idea if she agrees to it."

"I'd rather not. At least, that would be the last option." Weiss sighed. "She's shaken up. I don't want to throw her out in the wilderness with that insane lunatic running around. How many traumatizing experiences do you want her to have?"

"Okay, maybe it was a bad idea," Jaune scratched his head apologetically.

"So who's watching her now?" Coco asked. "If you're here, I'm suppose to assume you have someone covering you?"

"I asked the chief of police to send someone to keep an eye on her in my absence," Weiss answered.

"Who?" Velvet wondered.

"Uhh," Weiss lamely blanked out for a few moment. She strangely couldn't remember his name for some odd reason. "Something to do with the ocean?"

"Neptune Vasilias?" Coco scrunched her brows in disbelief.

"Yeah..." Weiss nodded but still uncertain.

"Oh fucking shit," Coco scrambled to retrieve her phone from her pocket. She punched in the numbers, attempting to get a hold of someone.

"Wait... What's happening?" Jaune asked nervously.

"When Flynt got killed, I was talking to Sun earlier. He was telling me about how Neptune was his best friend and how he transferred from Mistral University to Beacon. He hoped that Neptune wouldn't be one of the targets."

"Oh fuck me..." Weiss's heart sank when Coco explained.

"Hi this is Agent Adel," Coco started speaking into the phone when she got a hold of someone. "This is urgent. I need Neptune Vasilias number." She nodded and looked at Jaune who went to retrieve a paper and a pen. He jotted the numbers down when Coco began repeating the string of numbers. "Thank you."

"Call him Jaune." Weiss took her keys and prepared to rush out the door.

"He's not answering..."

"Call him again," Weiss hissed, a swarm of heat balled into her throat as she blamed herself for not thoroughly checking the officer's background.

Weiss's phone suddenly rang and her heart dropped even further into her stomach. She shakily swallowed, silently praying that it wasn't anything related to bad news before she answered the call. "Hello? Ruby...?"

 _"Weiss... I'm scared."_

Weiss's hardened face softened when she heard the timid voice.

"Ruby — are you okay? What happened?"

 _"I'm okay... But you know how there's always a police car somewhere nearby?"_

"Yeah." Weiss chewed her lower lips. Ruby sounded very shaken on the other side of the line.

 _"I haven't seen one passed by in two hours...And I'm freaking out cause I thought I just saw something move out there."_

"Oh no..." Weiss whispered. "Ruby, make sure your door is locked. Get a weapon, or something blunt just in case."

Then the agent shared a look with the others, and they nodded understandingly.

 _"O-Okay."_

"I'm heading there right now Ruby. Stay put."


End file.
